The High Line is a 1-mile (1.6 km) New York City linear park built on a 1.45-mile (2.33 km) section of the former elevated freight railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway. Phase 1 was opened in 2009, phase 2 in 2011, phase 3 most likely 2013.

Visiting the new phase 2 on Friday following Thanksgiving and with 64-degree weather it was wall-to-wall on the Highline and not many were thinking about holiday shopping just yet.

Above photo taken prior to development. Much of the naturalized plantings are inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the disused tracks.

Pebble-dash concrete walkways unify the trail, which swells and constricts, swinging from side to side, and divides into concrete tines that meld the hardscape with the planting embedded in railroad gravel mulch.